As-Suwayda-Sana
The two churches of the village of Al-Heet in the northern countryside of As-Suwayda represent one of the important archaeological monuments dating back to the Byzantine era and bearing witness to an ancient civilization.
The first southern church, as the head of the As-Suwayda Department of Antiquities, Dr. Nashaat Kiwan, told SANA’s reporter, is about 100 meters from the archaeological palace in the village. It is located on the southern border of the archaeological community in it. It is directed to the north-east with a main facade in the south and corridors, and it enters through 3 different doors, a main door and two secondary doors on the The southern facade and the western side, indicating that it was inhabited by the local population in modern times, and modifications were added to it that concealed a few of its parts.
And inside the southern church, according to the kiwan, a central nave and two side naves have arcades and stone arches with an altar on the eastern side, niches with recesses in the walls, frescoes with foliated frames, and ceilings with contiguous basalt tiles, carefully decorated with swastikas, and resting on scales with inverted ribs.
He indicated that the architectural decoration in this church is very limited, with the exception of several ornate capitals, as well as the frame with pillars for the main entrance door from the south side, in addition to the stone cornices designated for the upper parts of the buildings decorated with architectural decorations in the middle of the height of the western and southern facades.
According to Kiwan, the southern walls of the church contain 7 Greek inscriptions inscribed on reused stones, with the exception of two belonging to the northern wall. These inscriptions do not give any information about the date of the building or the saint to whom it was dedicated.
As for the second eastern church, it is as indicated by the head of the department. It is 90 meters away from the first. Like its predecessor, it is unidentified from the outside and almost isolated, as there is one modern house inside and opposite the northern side nave, while the other three sides are completely exposed.
Kiwan mentioned that this church has dimensions close to the dimensions of its predecessor, with the difference that its facade is to the west, its chest is to the east, and its interior naves are illuminated with small windows protected by stone cornices and their glades made of basalt stone. For the main nave, which was also divided into two parts.
What is curious about the eastern church, according to the head of the department, is the two western orphanages, small stones that are not limited by arches located on the arches of the lower aisle, but with walls fitted with doors, indicating that the roofs are in good condition and reconstructed using spaced tiles over the three-arch arch and trimmed tiles adjacent to the nave. Any decoration other than the decorations of the crowns, pillars, arches
The village of Al-Heet, which belongs to the Shaqah district in Suwayda, shares its name with two areas, one on the Euphrates River and the other in Homs.
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